From Zahara, we rode for 10 days straight, ranging anywhere from a meager 20+ kilometers through the mountains to 130K on the flatter lands per day. We have mostly been riding along the coast, swerving and hilly. Boy oh boy, 10 days of riding and my butt sure did hurt. We planned to ride close to Velencia before taking days off and heading on a train to Barcelona, but my sore legs and yearning for some walks and simplicity of not packing and unpacking our panniers, we stopped in the little town of Los Narejos, just outside of Cartegena. We arrived late on Saturday evening, winding our way to the campground along a road filled with kids in their late teens to early 20´s drinking cocktails and deafing themselves to techno blaring from their cars. Little did we know that the campground hosted a dance club, playing techno until about 2am and then the kids go to their cars and continue even loader music as it is closer to our tent until 8am. Wow! A crappy campground, sleeping (or lack there of until the music stopped) under an awning because of the lack of trees, and this is where we were spending our day off. Great I thought.
Pictures - Southern Spain!
That´s one big chip! Pretty tasty after a 1,000 ft plus climb
Riding on the coast is never a straight line... Up and Down. Left and Right.
Coolest hydro foil sail boat thing ever... Mar Menor, Cartagena
Spring time in Spain
Ahoy...
Passing Cabo de Los Gatos and some rain storms on the Med
Thankfully talked our way past this closed road... otherwise backtracking 15km!
More coastal riding trying to avoid the mountains... Not sure if this is easier.
Bag of pastries, the beach and sunset after a long ride.
Beach taxi... Thinking of trading in the bikes
Some random Spainish Sunday parade
Riding through an empty tunnel under the moutain. Nice!
Rhonda, Spain. Bullfights, Hemmingway and big cliffs
The gear...
Believe it or not, this is the new bridge. The one they through people off during the Spanish Civil War. Crazy.
Sunset high in the Sierra over the puebla blanca town of Grazalema
The mountain roads of te Sierra de Grazalema. A favorite.
Ancient mountain church in Zahara.
Our road out of town from the old moorish tower battlement
Sierra de la Grazalema riding... some of the best!
Zahara streets.
The amazing view of Zahara de la Sierra
Zahara!
120km ride south of Sevilla we finally came to a place to rest... Not too shabby.
Steets of Sevilla
Tapas and Vino in the Santa Barbara barrio of Sevilla. Thanks Matt!
Great Tapa joint... Spent two nights here.
The Fountainhead
Old royal palace of Sevilla
Same picture... whoops.
Some random family
Typical Sevilla street. Just narrow enough to ride!
The amazing Gothic cathedral of Sevilla
Sevilla
The old Moorish tower attached to the cathedral
Light focusing towers... aimed at fields of solar panels
Ancient Moorish mosque at Niebles, Spain
Old walled town of Niebles, between Huelva and Sevilla
From the mountains back to the coast
We headed to Sevilla from Huelva, a great ride! Getting out of the city was a bit tricky, but once we were a ways out, the road was beautiful, great towns to stop through for short tours, little traffic and fairly big shoulders. Our only trouble was that is was some sort of holiday, so as our luck would have it again, stores were closed. Surprise, surprise. We are realizing that the work hours in Portufal and Spain are quite short. Their siesta lasts anywhere from 2-7, and of course no hours on their windows. It´s pretty entertaining, but we always make due. We saw great castles and old churches, more small towns and beautiful scenery.
SPAIN!!!!!! - Writing
Where did we leave off? Lagos I believe? Lagos is a fantastic city! Probably our favorite so far. It is a walled city with beautiful streets to finagle our way through. And having English to read was a nice change as well! We even found a bookshop for a trade in! I just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which is great by the way, I read it 2 1-2 times. Thank you Summer!) and exchanged for The Tenderness of Wolves (which I have now finished as I write this and am on my way through for the 2nd time, pretty good too). When we aren´t riding our bikes, we spend our days just strolling through the cities/towns, literally strolling. We walk for miles and just enjoy people watching, eating, checking out the gorgeous scenery, dangling our feet in the water, truly admiring the surroundings and embracing this amazing opportunity we now call life. Wow.....this is our life. Not just a vacation for a few weeks, but our life. Happiness cannot possible describe the feeling.
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